A LEADING North-East scientist will tell supporters of the Cancer Research Campaign today that researchers are on the brink of a treatment revolution.

Professor Herbie Newell of Newcastle University will thank fundraisers for their support and reveal the progress being made in the war against cancer.

New drugs, targeted precisely at cancer cells and leaving the healthy ones untouched, will not only save more lives, but give patients back their quality of life, he will say.

The new generation of drugs will be based on scientists' expanding knowledge of the faulty genes involved in cancer.

"Our aim should be to progress from identifying a potential gene target to the first clinical trial of a new drug in three to five years. This would be an enormous improvement on the seven to ten years that was typical in the past," says Prof Newell.

He will tell supporters in London about the work of the Campaign's New Targets Committee, which is investing an extra £525,000 into the search for better treatments. He will also thank them for the vital role they play in that search.

"Our supporters are our lifeblood. Without their tireless efforts to fund our work, treatments that are saving lives today would not have been discovered," says Prof Newell.

Professor Gordon McVie, director general of the CRC, said: "A million people alive today have been successfully treated for cancer in the past 12 years and I believe the disease can be beaten by 2050.